Lelouch vi Britannia (Code Ghoul)
Lelouch, also known as Mezame Kagayaki in the story, is the main character of Code Ghoul, and plays the role of Kaneki Ken. He is a regular human college student studying Japanese literature, until he falls prey to C.C., a female ghoul. He luckily survives her attack, but unfortunately her kakuhou gets transplanted into his body. As a result, Lelouch becomes a half-ghoul, and as the 1st Ward is pitted against a gruesome battle against all living ghouls, these events slowly reshape Lelouch's personality and who he is. Eventually, this gradually leads him into surrendering his former self and fully accepting his life as a ghoul. Biography Early Life Lelouch was under the care of his mother for most of his childhood, due to the fact that his father had died when he was only four years old. Because of this, he hardly remembered what his father looked like and was often curious as to what kind of person his father was. However, Lelouch knew his father was an avid reader, and that was how he obtained his fondness for books and literature. Unfortunately, at the age of ten, Lelouch's mother had died due to overworking herself as a single mother. He was sent to live with his greedy aunt, who resented and belittled him instead of caring for her nephew like she's supposed to. It got harder even because his aunt rarely fed him. His aunt's family became a place of unease for a long time. Even during Elementary School, Lelouch rarely had friends due to his shyness. Apparently, he then meets Suzaku Kururugi, whom the latter becomes Lelouch's only support through his time being ostracized by his aunt's family. The two continued their friendship even during high school. When Lelouch graduates, he finally moves into his own apartment to evade his aunt. During these days, Lelouch's life is mostly settled down. Pre-Aogiri Suzaku and Lelouch frequently meet up at a cafe called Anteiku during their free time. On one of those days however, a green-haired lady walks into the cafe, and ends up catching the attention of Lelouch. Suzaku jokingly tells Lelouch that he should hook up with her, which apparently happens. However, the otherwise attractive young lady happens to be a ghoul, and she lures Lelouch into a death trap while walking through an isolated alleyway. Lelouch is wounded fatally in the abdomen as a result of being stabbed by the ghoul's kagune, but the latter dies from falling debris before she can fully kill him. Lelouch winds up in the hospital, where he had undergone surgery in which the ghoul's organs were transplanted into his body. Unknowingly, because of this, he becomes a half-ghoul. He realizes this change after many failed attempts at eating regular foods that humans eat. (By this, he ends up throwing them up.) He also realizes his significant crave for human flesh, in which he tries to suppress. Wandering the streets one night however, he finds out that one of the Anteiku waitresses (Kallen) is also a ghoul when she kills a human in front of him. Lelouch turns to Kallen for help, but eventually gives in when Anteiku's manager decides to help him, as Anteiku is actually a secret organization of ghouls who help their fellow kind against the CCG. During Lelouch's time working as a waiter at Anteiku, he learns to live his double life all while satisfying his gruesome appetite. He develops a pseudo-sibling bond with Nunnally, a ghoul child whose parents died under the hands of the CCG. However, Nunnally flees Anteiku when Kallen shows her the death notice of her mother's killer. The staff of Anteiku scatter to look for her, and at this time Lelouch deals seriously with battling a human. Lelouch manages to get captured towards the end of the Aogiri arc. He is held in confinement and is constantly tortured. At this point, he begins hallucinating again and eventually encounters the green-haired ghoul who only goes by the name, C.C. Lelouch eventually realizes that in order to prevent his friends in suffering, he must full-heartedly give up his human self and become a ghoul. He eventually manages to control his kagune and take down the one who captured him. Post-Aogiri Lelouch ends up leaving Anteiku as a result because he would be deemed a threat, and would only bring more trouble to the cafe if he ever stayed longer. He affiliates with the Aogiri Tree, a terrorist organization of ghouls that target the investigators of the CCG. At this point, not much is heard from Lelouch by the staff of Anteiku, until he unsuspectingly returns to the cafe for a brief time. He then returns to the Aogiri Tree, but ends up becoming a major target by the CCG. During these turn of events, Anteiku eventually burns into flames (much to Kallen's dismay; unknowingly, Kaneki is inside) However, during those few moments that Lelouch reminisces about Anteiku, his long-time best friend, Suzaku, stumbles in. Suzaku had ended up working for the CCG, hoping to get in contact with Lelouch. Unfortunately, he suffers from fatal wounds due to the gruesome battle between the Aogiri Tree and CCG that he is on the brink of death. Suzaku and Lelouch share their last talk together, with Suzaku weakly telling the latter, "Let's just go home already.", before shortly dying. Lelouch carries his best friend's body over to Charles, one of the CCG's undefeated investigators. The ghoul sets Suzaku's body down before what would then be the fight between Lelouch and Charles. Subsequently after Charles defeats Lelouch, the latter reawakens as a different personality named "Sulien", who is now currently a detective under the CCG. Appearance Pre-Aogiri Lelouch is a late teen standing at 178 cm (5'10") with a slender build. His attire generally consists of a white blazer with a pink collared shirt underneath, secured with a green tie. He wears khakis and brown shoes. He has neck-length dark brown hair and a fairly tanned skin complexion. Both his eyes are colored purple, but after becoming a half-ghoul, his left eye can change to red with an entirely black sclera. He often hides his left eye with an eyepatch. Lelouch sports on waiter attire when he works at Anteiku. He also dons on other casual attire when wandering outdoors such as a red hoodie with jeans. Lelouch was also given a mask used to conceal his identity from any CCG investigators coming to track him down. Post-Aogiri Post-Aogiri Lelouch depicts him looking moderately the same, except with more drastic changes in look. He is wearing the same exact Zero uniform as like in the Code Geass universe, except much of the uniform is discolored that only yellow remains, and the purple has faded in a darker color. He generally sports on the mask given to him during the Pre-Aogiri arc, and bares his ghoul side more than before. This Lelouch is more ruthless and cruel in appearance as well, aside from personality. Because of his bloodthirstiness, his skin is much paler than before. Current (Sulien) After Charles put an end to the being known as Lelouch, the CCG resurrected him into a whole entire other personality named Sulien. He does not remember his past, but as time goes by, he slowly begins to understand his life before becoming the person he is now. Sulien is an investigator and the leader of the CCG's Quinx Squad. Although being quite comical sometimes, he still retains his half-ghoul persona in the CCG, as it is accepted at least to Sulien himself. He wears a bright blue uniform, and his former dark brown hair now has more of a red tint to it. His kakugan (ghoul eye) on his left eye has a grey sclera as opposed to the black sclera of a typical ghoul, and can be summoned at will. Personality Unlike his canon counterpart, this Lelouch is portrayed to be more awkward, meek, and reserved during the start of Code Ghoul's events. He spends most of his time generally reading books, mostly novels. Despite this, Lelouch seems to be ever so optimistic and very gentle. However, he is very selfless, but this makes him an easy target of bullying. His selflessness is conveyed because of his fear of being alone. Lelouch constantly tries to protect his friends in order to prevent the possibility of that ever happening. He believes in the idea of being "the person getting hurt" and thus takes the blame and punishment from others. After undergoing constant torture during his confinement, Lelouch's personality develops into a more cruel being. Though he continues trying to protect his friends, he becomes ruthless and brutal just to do that, all while containing himself. He no longer fears his ghoul side. Abilities and Other Lelouch starts off as weak and feeble during the early events of the story, but towards the end of the Aogiri arc, he begins to gain full control of his abilities as a ghoul. Such abilities are listed below. Kagune * Rinkaku: The appearance of a ghoul's kagune depends on their Rc type. Lelouch's type is a rinkaku, which is summoned off by the lower back around the waist area. Most rinkakus resemble scaled tentacles, and has powerful regenerative abilities. Lelouch's regenerating factor is abnormal due to his kakuhou being originally from C.C.'s body. Rinkakus excel in brutal strength, making it one of the few reasons why Lelouch is a ruthless fighter. Lelouch can summon up the eight of these tentacles, though the amount in which he can bring up gradually increase throughout the story. He starts with three of them at the beginning. * Kakuja: After consuming his kidnapper's kakuja, Lelouch developed a mutation within his Rc cells and thus a transformed kagune was developed. His kakuja is unique from his rinkaku because it provided him with armor, even developing a sort of mask by his face; but because the kakuja is incomplete, whenever it is summoned, Lelouch loses himself and snaps into a psychotic berserker. Because of this, Lelouch is sure to make use of the kakuja very wisely, as it can also cause a great deal of damage and pain to his body. Below listed are some other quirks or hints to know about Lelouch Mental Illnesses *'Dissociative Identity Disorder': Subsequently after becoming a ghoul, Lelouch begins to lose track on who he is as a person. He fluctuates on clinging to his human side all the while accepting himself a ghoul. He also has the tendency to speak to himself in small fits on insanity, converging between his desperate, fearful human side, and his bloodthirsty, cruel ghoul side. *'Amnesia:' As Sulien, Lelouch doesn't remember his past after being ressurrected as a whole other person. However, he gradually begins to pick up pieces of his past with the people he speaks with, as well as the voice of his past self speaking to him. Relationships * Suzaku Kururugi. Suzaku is Lelouch's best friend since elementary school, and practically the only friend that the latter will ever trust. They frequently meet up at Anteiku and spend much of their free time together. However, when the events of Code Ghoul begin, the two begin to lose contact of eachother due to Lelouch being involved with working with Anteiku staff all the while being involved in CCG threats. Suzaku joins the CCG to hopefully reconnect with his best friend, only to die peacefully upon Lelouch's arms at the end after succumbing to fatal wounds. * Kallen Kozuki. '''Lelouch viewed Kallen as a cute girl at first, until stumbling upon the revelation that she is also a ghoul. At this point, the two had a very rough relationship, usually with Kallen breaking into some strict fits of anger and bossiness in front of Lelouch; with the latter refusing to show compassion to him. However, they both grew close despite these happenings. Kallen then grows to care more about Lelouch and would do anything to protect him, even though she admits this isn't true. After Lelouch awakens as a ghoul, Kallen is shown in a state of grief after learning that the other would leave Anteiku. At those times when Lelouch rarely returned to Anteiku, he always seemed to avoid Kallen; but when the latter had her chance to speak to him, she ended up beating him up to express her sadness over his change. * '''Nunnally/Chiharu Nozomu. Nunnally and Lelouch, despite not being related in this universe, have a strong pseudo-sibling bond. Nunnally evens addresses Lelouch as her "big brother" as well as Kallen being her "big sister". They both share a fondness for reading, and Lelouch would frequently be the one teaching Nunnally new vocabulary since she couldn't go to school. After the death of Nunnally's mother, Lelouch and Kallen have been very protective of her and treat each other like family. Nunnally then joins Lelouch's group following the Aogiri arc, before disbanding due to the CCG's raid on Anteiku. Although Lelouch had seemingly dissappeared from Nunnally's life, the latter still often thinks of him, even as she grows up joining the Aogiri Tree. * C.C. The enigmatic green-haired ghoul was the reason why Lelouch had become this way in the first place. After failing to attack Lelouch, C.C.'s kakuhou was transplanted into the young male's body only for her to becoming part of Lelouch's subconsciousness. Although he merely seems to fear her haunting him, C.C. actually teaches Lelouch how to become stronger, and in the end, teach him how to give up his former self and accept being a ghoul. Trivia * Lelouch is shown not having a confirmed surname in Code Ghoul due to Britannia not existing. The creator strayed away from using the "Lamperouge" surname as well. The same applies for the rest of his family members who are not related to him in this universe. * Because the story still takes place in Tokyo, Lelouch is presumably Japanese in the universe, despite his first name. This would later on change due to Lelouch being given an alternative name in the story, confirming that he will indeed be Japanese in the Code Ghoul universe, and not Britannian or any other nationality. ** The creator has given Lelouch an alternate Japanese name for readers to address him by, which is "Mezame Kagayaki", which roughly translates to, "Awakening radiance". * The creator refrained from having Lelouch develop white hair like Kaneki did when he awoke as a ghoul because she found it strange seeing a white-haired Lelouch. However, when Lelouch awoke as Sulien, his brown hair developed into a more auburn color. * Lelouch's Post-Aogiri "Zero" uniform still remained purple during earlier development, but the creator decided to color it into a more grayish-purple to avoid staying similar to the Code Geass universe. * Lelouch's CCG uniform is just his Code Geass school outfit tinted into a bright blue. Ironically, Code Ghoul Suzaku wears the normal black school outfit as his normal attire, with his royal clothing being his CCG uniform, The creator might change this later on. Quotes From Lelouch *"My mother always had this notion, and it stuck with me ever since I grew up. She said to prevent a close one from suffering, that you yourself had to be the one suffering in their place. Be punished by them, blame yourself, and you won't be alone. But for me, at this point...did that always have to be the right choice?" (Post-Aogiri) *"What's the point of a story if you haven't given it an ending?" *"...How can I possibly eat it, because I'm human! I'm different from you monsters!'' '' " (desperately clinging to his human side) *"I'm sorry...your older brother (Lelouch/Mezame) has lots of things to take care of." (to Nunnally/Chiharu) *"You know, if you died, I'd be grieving for you." (to Kallen) *"What's one thousand minus seven...?" *"All the liabilities in this world are due to the inadequecies of the person involved." To or About Lelouch from Other Characters *(From Kallen) "Everything is 'terrible'? Don't make me laugh. So what about me...for me, it's been terrible since I was born." *(From Kallen) "I have faith in him. I know he will return to Anteiku." *(From Chiharu) "Big sister (Kallen)...what happened to big brother? He's been gone for a long time, and that's not usual for him." *(From Suzaku) "Hey, you should definitely hook up with that chick over there." (implying to C.C.) *(From C.C.) "All of the disadvantage in this world stems from a persons lack of ability." *(From Kallen) "Why?! Why the hell would you just do that?! Why...why did you have to change? Your smile...where is it now?" *(From Suzaku) "Hey, Mezame...let's just go home already." *(From the hallucination of his Post-Aogiri self) "Hey, you wanted this, right? So why don't you just accept me?" Category:Characters Category:Code Ghoul